Dmitry Tursunov battles past Thomaz Bellucci into second round – Shanghai Rolex Masters 2011
Russian tennis player Dmitry Tursunov battled past Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 on Tuesday to book his place in the second round of 2011 Shanghai Open here in China. The 28-year-old was delighted with her effort
and he aimed to give similar results in his upcoming matches at the tournament as well.
Both players looked in terrific form as some highly competitive tennis was witnessed in the opening set. After the contestants broke each other once, the set entered a very gripping phase with the game score evened at 5-5. Converting
his second break chance in eleventh game, Bellucci earned a very tricky 6-5 lead, serving for the set. However Tursunov broke straight back to force the set into a tie-breaker
Showing no signs of nerves, the Brazilian tennis pro clinched the tie-breaker to take 1-0 set score lead. World number 41, Tursunov had his chances to strengthen his position in the match but he struggled to cope with pressure
to let his opponent dictate terms.
Looking for an entry back into the contest, Tursunov displayed some high quality tennis in the following set. Handling the pressure absolutely brilliantly, he held on to his service games to dent his opponent’s confidence levels.
Breaking the serve twice, he shifted the balance of the match. Hitting a blistering serve ace, he set up two set points for himself and then converted the first one to even the set score and force the match into the final set.
Both men struggled to hit a break of serve in the decider as a nail biting encounter took place. Despite having the momentum on his side, Tursunov failed to break the deadlock. Bellucci showed great character and temperament as
he secured all of his service games to even the game score at 5-5. Tursunov raised the level of his game play and broke the serve again in eleventh game to take a crucial 6-5 lead. He then converted his first match point to close out the contest.
Tursunov now moves on ahead to play Brit Andy Murray in the second round. The Brit is on an Asian title hat-trick winning titles in Bangkok and Beijing in the last two weeks.
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